By Yogini Shambhavi
Shakti, the intrinsic grace of the Divine Mother Goddess, holds the supreme power of spiritual, psychological and bodily well-being. Connecting to Shakti we can unravel all the energies of healing – both for healing ourselves and healing others. These begin with the very air through which we live.
Drawing from the sacred source of the universal Shakti, one can move beyond the limitations of all outer therapies, medications and even psychoanalysis. The force and benevolence of the Goddess in her manifestations as Bhu Devi or Mother Earth, and Maha Prakriti or Great Nature, allow us to restore our health and rejuvenate ourselves through the flow of divine grace. All the healing powers of nature arise from this.
Mother Earth and Mother Nature carry the Shakti essence of all healing in latent potential which those who are aware can activate. Everything in the universe possesses its own special healing power or Shakti, like fire’s power of purification or water’s calming power. Ayurvedic medicine teaches us how to recognize, understand and work with these different healing Shaktis in its various therapies. The Hindu Yoga approach manifests a healing power through its sacred sciences of Devi Tantra, Bhakti Yoga, Ayurveda, Vedic Astrology, Mantra Jnana, Vedanta and Yogasana. To embrace the healing power of Shakti we must understand and inculcate the principles of this ancient Rishi culture connected to the whole of nature.
Shakti is ultimately the cosmic energy that manifests through all space. This takes the form of the atmosphere on the Earth, which carries the powers behind life and connects us to the Universal Spirit. It is the atmosphere that unites Heaven and Earth, holding each above and below. Here we find the most active Shakti force.
Vayu Mandala, the Atmosphere in Vedic Thought Holds the Prana Shakti
The atmosphere forms the dominant realm of the Earth’s prana, the global vital force through which the planetary organism functions, the very biosphere or sphere of life. The term “atmo” in atmosphere derives from the Greek term for breath that relates to the Sanskrit term Atman, which is not merely the breath but the spirit as well. The forces of the atmosphere–what is called the sphere of the winds or Vayu Mandala in Vedic thought–are responsible for the weather and seasonal changes that drive the movement of all life on the planet. The atmosphere is the sacred breath of the planet, which grants life to all creatures!
Shakti is identified with Vidyut or lightning energy. This refers to all electromagnetic powers and relates to the lightning in the Atmosphere as the power of life. That same lightning Shakti awakens all healing forces around and within us.
Being in sync with the rhythmic waves of the Vayu Mandala and the sacred Vayu Yantra, geometrical patterns formed through the pranic atmospheric forces, grace us with a spiritual vitality and creativity. The rapid fluctuations of the atmospheric forces and their subsequent weather patterns are the primary factors in the outer world for health and well-being. Our ability to adjust to their daily and seasonal rhythms determines whether we resist or succumb to psychosomatic disorders, ailments or diseases starting with the common cold and extending to collective epidemics and plagues.
The forces of the atmosphere hold the Shakti of the universal prana on Earth. The ecosystem or flora and fauna convey the powers of heat and cold, dampness and dryness, wind and sunlight, making their mark upon nature, our physical being and its energies. Atmospheric forces shape the outer environment, to which our inner environment or bodily state must harmonize itself in order to maintain balance. Each one of us can be said to be a manifestation of the atmosphere, incarnate as an individual being, which exists as the breath or prana within us.
Living creatures are atmospheric forms that move along the planet’s surface like the winds, which allows them to live and move above ground and in contact with the air. We are spirits, as it were, meaning the energy of air, prana and lightning in embodiment. In addition, we have our own ‘inner atmosphere’, which manifests our emotional and energy sphere. How we fine tune our emotions and mindset to its intrinsic nature, is essential to our psychological well-being. Making our inner atmosphere expansive and yet calm, full of light and yet nourishing like the rain, is a great secret of Shakti Sadhana.
Shiva and Shakti
Shiva is the great Lord of Prana and the Devi or Goddess is the grace which directs and carries its flow. The divine Lila of Shiva and Shakti as a manifestation of cosmic dynamism resides behind the play of our own prana or life force with that of the entire universe. Being in sync with Mother Nature helps us live in this flow of benevolence that is the immortal universal life.
The lightning in the atmosphere energizes the vibrant Shakti or life force of the Earth, holding the solar energy in the clouds, which begets the rain that nourishes all living creatures. The atmosphere is the great sphere of Shakti on Earth with its dramatic storms and shifting clouds that move swiftly on a daily or even hourly basis. Without the dynamic flow of air through the atmosphere, life would not be possible even for a moment. While we all enjoy the beauty of the atmosphere, particularly during spectacular thundershowers, we should remember the Atman or our true Self of prana, light and consciousness that pervades the entire universe.
Today we must heal the atmosphere by reducing our pollution and disruption of atmospheric forces. It is harming not only the air we breathe, but the life energy that flows within us. If our air and atmosphere is toxic then our biological, psychological and social energies will be disturbed as well, leading to every sort of personal and collective disharmony, disease and sorrow. Remember your true Self is the spirit of the air and the wind extending to all the cosmic energies that are pervaded by a single consciousness.
Yogini Shambhavi
